One beef farmer took the bull by the horns and is now successfully using electronic identification (EID) to improve business

business as a management recording tool, using it to run their cattle passport system, he’s now employing it to address a whole range of electronic identification and monitoring activities.

“In terms of straightforward recording, to begin with, we’ve now been completely paperless at the cattle crush for the last two years,” said Alistair.

“Whatever the task in hand, such as weighing or dosing, I merely enter the animal’s EID number into my tablet alongside the relevant weight or treatment details and everything we need to know gets sent to the cloud for me to access anytime and anywhere I want.”

While current systems obviously differ between farming businesses, sometimes hindering the easy transfer of farm-to-farm details, a recent Kingan Farms experience gave Alistair a glimpse of what the future might hold as the development of EID technology continues to progress.

“We use Allflex EID tags, working alongside Farmwizard livestock management software, and recently bought a batch of calves for finishing from a farmer who happened to be on exactly the same two systems,” he said.

“As a result, we were able to gain immediate electronic access to the entire history of each of the calves we bought. We also had all their history available to us in an accessible format, in one place and under one system.”

Being committed to producing top quality beef under the Scotch Beef label, and to do so in a sustainable and ethical manner, such details are clearly of commercial value to Kingan Farms and their business reputation.

Monitoring and analysing growth performance has also become easier across their three-unit operation, with the EID system being capable of identifying which animals are still converting expensive feed into costeffective weight gain and which are no longer performing as they should.

“Once an animal stops adding weight effectively it needs to be marketed,” said Alistair, adding that keeping it longer just to hit a specific target weight can prove extremely costly.

Kingan Farms’ stockmen – Gordon McKenna, who has been with the business for 40 years, and Michael Clingan – are also fully on board with the increasing part that EID technology is playing in the business.

“Having worked with traditional methods in the past, it would have been easy for them to have been scared of this technology,” said Alistair.

“As it is, they think it’s brilliant. Our scale of operation, which requires us to run an open book production and management system, couldn’t operate as it does without good input from our staff.

“For me, meanwhile, I basically have my whole farm on my phone. That includes all cattle details, chemical records, fertiliser figures and so on.

“It’s the way forward. I’m convinced of that.”

Beef farmer Alistair Kingan says he has benefited from using EID technology in his day-to-day business.